Teioháte Kaswenta, or Two Row Wampum, was made between the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and early settler-colonial states (1613, 1664). It symbolized ‘Two Peoples’ – settler and Indigenous – who were to sail down the ‘river of life’ in two separate-but-equal rows. But settlers and Indigenous peoples alike have often straddled boats, for good or for ill.

As we shape our personal and shared journeys, we must remember that we cannot have Reconciliation without Truth and that we must consider our past and imagine our future at the same time. The exhibition Unsettling the Grand looks at the Grand River as a physical metaphor for the Two Row Wampum.

Join us for an evening of conversation with ‘Our Rivers,’ as told through the perspectives of scholars, artists, and community members from both settler-colonial and Indigenous walks-of-life and ways-of-knowing. We ask: How have our rivers changed over time and how have they remained the same? How have both settler and Indigenous communities been changed by the river and how have we changed the river itself?

Featuring guest speakers Ellie Joseph & Jay Bailey, Two Row on the Grand, and Jeremy Shute, Speed to Sea, followed by an exhibition tour with Robert Flewelling, guest curator, Unsettling the Grand: Legacies of Settlement in the Grand River Valley, from 1700 to the Present Day (on view at the Guelph Civic Museum until February 4, 2024).

Reception to follow the presentations – refreshments will be served.

Preregistration on Eventbrite is required.

Image Credit: Page detail from “Mapping the Two Row,” an accordion notebook created by Daniel Rotsztain in 2018